


Oro's First Student

by StrawberryCoolatta



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied Character Death, Sad Ending, i still dont know how to tag content but here it goes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28697595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryCoolatta/pseuds/StrawberryCoolatta
Summary: Oro tried to go to the edge of the world to be left alone, but someone refuses to stop visiting.
Relationships: Broken Vessel | Lost Kin & Nailmaster Oro
Comments: 22
Kudos: 69





	Oro's First Student

**Author's Note:**

> My friend mentioned to me that the Broken Vessel knew how to use dash slash, something that they could have probably only learned from Oro. I feel like most of my writing ideas come from this particular friend.

The first time the child arrived, Oro was unwelcoming.

He was broken out of deep thought by the quiet sound of footsteps approaching. He looked up, seeing a small creature standing in front of him. He honestly hadn’t expected anyone to be able to find him here at the edge of the world. It was why he had come here after all.

“Have you come this way to learn nail arts from me?” he asked, feeling slightly annoyed. “The law of the Great Nailsage says I must not turn away a willing student, but you must be on your way once you have learned.”

The child said nothing in response, but brandished their weapon. Maybe they couldn’t speak? It didn’t matter, it’s not like they would be having a conversation anyway. 

As Oro taught them, the child listened to Oro’s every word with interest. In the end, Oro ended up having to teach them more than just the dash slash, it was clear they were inexperienced in using their nail. Well, he couldn’t expect a child to know everything about using a nail, could he? But Oro had to admit they were an excellent student, quickly picking up on everything that Oro taught them.

“I have taught you everything I can, now be on your way,” Oro said once the child had mastered the dash slash. The child bowed back to him, and left without a word. Maybe if more bugs showed up wanting to learn from him, he should start charging them geo.

As Oro returned to his meditation, he could hear the child outside, practicing their new skill. 

The second time the child arrived, Oro was annoyed.

“I have taught you everything, yet you still return?” he sighed. He was not in the mood for company. He never was. “Since you are my pupil, you can rest here. But do not stay long.”

The child nodded, and walked over to one of the short stools backed up against the wall, sitting down. Much to Oro’s relief, the child was silent and did not attempt to try and strike up a conversation. It was almost as if they weren’t even there. 

Oro was in one of the smaller rooms branching off from the main one, carefully cutting out the infection-filled center of a hopper. He hated that this was one of the only things to eat in Kingdom’s Edge, but he could deal with it. At least he wasn’t forced to eat the aspids, they were almost all infection and difficult to catch. He was setting the hopper down above the coals, but nearly dropped it when he saw that the child was now sitting a few feet away, watching him.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Oro grumbled. He had gotten pretty startled by their presence, he was too used to being alone. The child held out a dead hopper, and then pointed to the other one that was cooking. 

“You want me to cook it?” he asked. “You may be taking up my time, but at least you aren’t taking my food.”

He took the dead hopper from them, working on carving out the center, the child watching intently. Oro wasn’t sure what they would learn from this, he was a nailmaster, not a “cooking master” or whatever they were called. And he had never been the best at cooking anyway.

“Not even a thank you?” Oro scoffed as he gave the child the now cooked hopper on the plate. The child just looked at him for three seconds before beginning to eat. Perhaps their way of saying thank you, if they truly couldn’t talk.

The third time the child arrived, Oro was expecting it.

“Hm, showing up uninvited again?” Oro said as soon as he heard the familiar sound of their little footsteps. “I’ve told you, there’s nothing more for me to give you.”

Undeterred, the child walked up to him and pulled something out of their cloak. It was a shining crystal, brighter than anything Oro had ever seen before. 

“A gift?” he said. “If you are going to bring me useless rocks like this, at least make it worth something and bring geo instead.”

The child ignored him, placing the crystal in front of him. Then they left. That was it? Just to bring him a useless gift? Was it their idea of payment perhaps? He did have to admit though that the crystal was beautiful. A shining pink, reflecting the minimal light that was present in Oro’s home. He picked it up in his hand, examining it. He had heard tales of the crystals that were in high demand back in Hallownest’s prime, when the bugs tired of hoarding geo they would hoard the crystals instead. He had even heard that if you listen closely, you could hear it singing. Double checking to make sure the child was really gone, he held the crystal close, listening intently. Oh! He really could hear a faint sound!

The crystal would now have a home on top of the cabinets that lined the walls of his hut. While it was completely useless, he didn’t want to throw it away. 

The fourth time the child arrived, Oro didn’t mind.

“Again? I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. You may meditate with me if you wish, but be silent,” he said, as if the child had been anything but that. He returned to staring at the floor, deep in his thoughts. Meditation was supposed to clear the mind, but it never did that for Oro. Instead it was the perfect time to think- or sleep, which was often what happened when he was younger.

After a while, he looked up to check on the child. Their head was drooping downwards, almost as if they were asleep. Were they asleep? Oro couldn’t tell, their eyes (did they even have eyes?) looked to be open, but that could have just been their mask.

“Are you awake?” he asked, and after the child didn’t move, he came to the conclusion that they were definitely asleep. He sighed, standing up. He did have some spare blankets in the closet, he supposed he could give the child one. And a pillow. They were small enough for their entire body to fit on one.

Careful not to wake the child, he put a blanket around their shoulders, and slowly picked them up. He had never held a child before, much less one sleeping that he was trying not to wake up! Thankfully, they didn’t awaken, and he was able to carry them to the few pillows he had put up against the wall and on the ground. He stepped away quietly after placing them there, hoping he wasn’t too loud.

He watched them sleep peacefully, wondering if they had a home to go back to. Were their caretakers worried that they didn’t return tonight? Did they even have any caretakers? If not, the child had certainly proven that they knew how to take care of themself. He shouldn’t be worried. He _wouldn’t_ be worried.

The seventh time that the child arrived, Oro was surprised that he had grown fond of their company.

They never stayed for too long, always stopping by to sit with him. Putting the crystal out in the open was a mistake, because as soon as they noticed he had kept it, they wouldn’t stop bringing him little trinkets and baubles from all across Hallownest. The majority were from the kingdom’s capital. Had they ransacked all the empty buildings looking for gifts? He told them each time to stop bringing him these things, but they never did stop. They reminded him of those maskflies he and his brother used to leave out food for when they were younger. In return, the maskflies would bring back bits of metal or other shiny things. 

Yet for some reason, he kept every single useless item that was brought to him. He didn’t know why, he just did. 

The tenth time that the child arrived, it had been awhile since their last visit.

Oro would never admit that he was worried, but the fear in the back of his mind that the child had gotten hurt was there. He knew he shouldn’t be worried, the child had survived long enough on their own. They were probably busy.

“You’re back again,” he said as the child walked in. He noticed immediately that they had gotten taller, but also that their cloak was more tattered. It certainly had been awhile. 

The child walked up to him, and tugged on his arm, pointing at the door. They wanted to show him something outside. Normally, Oro would have recoiled at the touch, but for some reason it was fine when the child did it. 

“What is it you want to show me?” he asked, standing up. “This better be worth my time.”

The child led him outside, and around the back to the training area. After making sure that he was watching, they drew their nail and hopped back, looking like they were charging up a dash slash. To Oro’s surprise, before they rushed forward, they jumped into the air and were able to perform the dash slash in mid air! It must have been thanks to how lightweight they were, Oro would have never been able to do that himself.

They did it again, and Oro was impressed. He was proud of them. Oh no, he had gotten attached, hadn’t he. 

“Hm, you’ve certainly improved in your skills,” he admitted. “I’ve never seen that technique used with the dash slash before.”

The twelfth time that the child arrived, they were injured.

They stumbled into Oro’s hut, their nail stained with orange. They were shaking, a strange black substance leaking out of their shell. 

“Oh Wyrm, what happened to you?” he said when he saw them, trying to hide the worry in his voice. “Are you alright?”

Clearly they were not alright, but Oro didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a doctor! They weren’t even bleeding, and there was no apparent injury aside from the crack in their shell. Well, he could start with that.

“Wait here,” he told them, going over to one of the cabinets. There had to be bandages somewhere, he knew he had used them before after an unfortunate Great Hopper incident. Ah, there they were. He took a large handful of them (probably too much) and quickly went back over to the child, who was collapsed on the floor now. As soon as they noticed he was back, they made an effort to sit up. The crack wasn’t too bad, and would probably be fine if it weren’t for the ink-like substance dripping out of it. Oro at first tried to wipe it away, but it didn’t stick at all, instead evaporating at the touch. Weird. So instead, he focused on making sure that the crack was covered, and hoped it would stop the leaking.

“Stop squirming, you’re making me mess up,” he scolded. 

He was done patching them up soon after, and it wasn’t half bad for someone with no medical experience at all.

“Here, rest,” he said, picking them up and placing them on the pillows that were still left out. “So what got you? Great Hoppers? Those infernal spitting Aspids?”

The child nodded after he mentioned the Great Hoppers.

“Don’t feel too bad about letting one of those get the best of you, those things track you done and jump at you from above, it's tough to dodge them,” he said. “Are you feeling any better now?”

The child nodded.

“Say, do you have anyone to go back to? They might be worried about you.”

The child shook their head. So that answered his earlier question, they really were alone.

“Well, it's quite impressive that you’ve managed to survive this long on your own then. I hope my teachings assisted you.” He picked up the spare blanket that was folded neatly next to the pillows, and placed it over them. “You can rest here as long as you’d like. And once you leave, do be more careful of the Hoppers this time.”

After the fifteenth time that the child arrived, Oro decided he should give them a gift in return. 

He really had grown quite fond of them, their visits were perfectly spaced out so that he would have enough time to be alone as well. They never stayed too long either. And the little gifts they had brought really did fill up his home, it looked much nicer now. 

Oro paced around the room, wondering what kind of gift he could give. He didn’t really have anything, he had barely taken anything with him when he left, and it’s not like Kingdom’s Edge was full of resources. Oh wait! He had an idea. 

He dug through the back of his closet, looking for something specific. Aha! There it was! His first nailmaster’s cloak. The child always seemed so cold when they visited, and their own cloak had grown tattered. He had long since outgrown the cloak, and it was still much too big to fit the child, but he was sure with a little bit of tampering it would fit. He was sure he had sewing supplies somewhere, he had to fix the holes in his own cloak somehow.

There he sat, carefully trying to sew the bottom of the cape up to make it shorter, cursing everytime he pricked his finger. He was never the best at things like this, that had always been Sheo. But still, he persisted, trying to finish the project.

After many tedious hours of sewing, it was done. A bit shoddily made, but Oro didn’t really care. Now he would just have to wait for the next time the child visited. It should be soon. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was excited to give them the gift. For once, Oro found himself looking forward to the next visit.

But the child never did visit again.

**Author's Note:**

> listen, if Oro can dress up a corpse as a training dummy, he can give the broken vessel a cloak too!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [These Are the Days That Bind Us](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29970030) by [TheRechercheRambler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRechercheRambler/pseuds/TheRechercheRambler)




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